Anyone had a long, relaxing playthrough recently?

[galneon]

I waited many years for a resolution to the disappearing item bug as I wanted to play at a relaxed pace while being very thorough. Then at some point, last year IIRC, the bug was reported to be back by at least one user here.

Do we have multiple confirmations on the resurgent bug? Is it still more likely to happen during longer playthroughs where NPCs have been allowed to produce a lot of items? Is it possible the bug was never fixed but that DrCode's work (which obviously helped enormously) just made it less likely to manifest?

[Gotcha!]

I'm always very thorough when playing through the games, and I haven't seen the disappearing items bug in a very long time.

Couldn't tell you how long ago; I make it a thing to replay both games every ~2 years and haven't run into this for at least a bunch of play-throughs.

[Dominus]

It resurfaced and I got at least one instance in Britain where I can make it crash. The problem is not that items disappear but that Exult crashes...
DrCode and Marzo did more work to make it safer but this is still in non merged branches of the code

[Knight Captain]

I documented a potential issue around the tavern in Britain as well.

Even if an item goes missing, you could simply add it back with Exult Studio. While not ideal it means your game should never stall as unwinnable.

[agentorangeguy]

combat is less aggravating since DrCode did some minor changes to it (to prevent ranged weaponry using npcs from crowding the target and shooting point blank) but combat could use some more love. I've not seen the dissappearing items bug yet

[galneon]

Sounds safe enough for me to give it a go sometime! Thanks for the info. When I finally get around to it, I'll be sure to post how my playthrough went.

[Dominus]

Let me repeat, the disappearing items wil cause a crash. What happens, in a layman's nutshell:
NPC in their schedules will create items and then delete them and somewhere in these pointers there is a mismatch that will crash Exult.
It's not that the items of the party will disappear.

[Gotcha!]

Will these crashes worsen over time, growing in number, eventually making the game unplayable? Or is it more of a save often, game might crash once every few hours?

[Alessandro Furgiuele]

Any chance this issue will be finally fixed once and for all?

[Dominus]

We were working on it..

[galneon]

What must be done prior to the merging of the code that Marzo and DrCode worked on?

[Dominus]

I think Marzo should ok it...

[drcode]

I think it's done. I played all the way through BG, fixing lots of problems from it along the way. Then I went about half-way through SI with very few problems. But a vacation side-tracked me. I'll start playing again and see how it goes.

I agree with Dominus, that Marzo should take a look, and then we should switch over. It's probably more stable than the current main branch.

On another note, I sometimes see companions hopping along after the Avatar, and think this ought to be fixed.

[Knight Captain]

I've seen that hopping-along thing in SI as well. I know there's reasons why the U6 formation isn't used though.

Does anyone know the location of the egg on The Isle of the Avatar where flying over it in a magic carpet blocks non-hack progress?

[Gotcha!]

Would that egg be at either the Throne of Change or that other throne you have to sit in to progress?
Just a guess.

[Paulon]

It's in the tunnels fairly near the entrance to the dungeons on the Isle of the Avatar. Without reinstalling the game, the closest I can come is under the mountains on the southwest coast of the harbour in the west side of the Isle.
It's the flag which closes a door in the passageways there, which is supposed to trap you in the cell-block, until you find the secret exit. Flying over it closes the door before you enter it on foot, and there's a plot critical switch in the sealed area which opens a door further along the corridor.

[galneon]

Can anyone point Marzo to this thread?

[Alessandro Furgiuele]

Can you guys give some advice? At the moment, the current snapshot of Exult works fine in order to play Ultima VII - Part I and Ultima VII - Part II? Or it's better if I wait for some new release maybe in the future?
Which are the problems at the moment? If there are any.

[Dominus]

It's fine